


First Encounter

by glowingGalaxies



Series: New Cape AU [2]
Category: PKNA - Paperinik New Adventures
Genre: Gen, also good news odin's still a huge fan of the show Anxieties in this au, as I'm sure any sensible person was wondering, odin's first night out as a hero!, they run into some evronians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 14:17:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20229241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glowingGalaxies/pseuds/glowingGalaxies
Summary: He really had intended to ignore the strange, bright purple ducks that appeared one night. People did weird stuff all the time, and he didn't want to risk being seen in this ridiculous suit- appearing all over the news in it- just because a few people stood out.But Donald had other ideas, and something about his excitement made it dangerously contagious."There they are again! I'm tellin' ya, Odin, they're giving me a really bad feeling. You should figure out what they're up to.""We're really going to act on a feeling even when it's likely to get us arrested for stalking?" He replied, already heading over there anyway. While he didn't really get Donald's trust in "gut instinct", the more the AI brought the purple ducks up the harder it was to ignore his own curiosity.





	First Encounter

He wasn't going to say anything to Donald, but the feeling of the wind whipping at his face and blowing his cape around- he shouldn’t have agreed to a cape, they're dangerous and impractical- was unpleasant at best.

But that opinion was, without a doubt, heavily influenced by the fact that he was on top of Ducklair Tower, standing uncomfortably close to the edge of the roof.

“Boy, with the wind up here, you really _do_ look like a superhero now!”

“Looking like a superhero doesn't make me a superhero,” he responded flatly. “Why are you so convinced jumping off a building is a good idea, again? Nevermind that it's the tallest building in Duckburg?”

“It's, y'know, a leap of faith, like they say! I read about it in a comic once. Besides, you've got some rocket boosters somewhere, and this'll be great practice for using them. If you can jump off Ducklair Tower, you can do anything!”

“I thought you were a high-empathy AI, can't you imagine why I'd be reluctant to do this?”

“C’mon, Odin, the best thing to do is start with the hardest challenge first! If you can survive jumping off this building, all the shorter ones will be a breeze!”

“That logic is incredibly flawed-”

“You’ll be fine, just go!”

Odin took a deep breath, once again marvelled at the ridiculousness of what he was about to do, and jumped. Nearly immediately, it occurred to him he wasn't entirely certain how to activate the flight device. 

“DONALD,” he shouted, barely hearing his voice over the sound of the rushing air, “IF I DIE YOU'LL HAVE TO LIVE WITH THE GUILT FOR THE REST OF YOUR UNNATURAL LIFE!”

“Uh, maybe, if I didn’t have total faith you can do this! Just _think_; you know how to activate your boosters!”

Keeping another argument to himself, he tried to focus- Donald had run through all the gadgets, where was the propulsion system?

Not the cuffs of his sleeves. He didn't have any weapons- not right now, anyway, although he suspected Donald was indeed making some- so it couldn't be those. But his boots- his boots! He just had to…

The ground getting ever closer, he ensured he was upright and clicked his heels together three times (he had a feeling Donald had been watching too many movies). The rockets in the soles burst to life, and he shot upward, back the same way he'd just fallen.

“You are _incredibly_ lucky this went well, Donald! I can't believe you made me do that!”

“I'm just a floating head in an orb, I can't make you do anything. You _agreed_.” He could hear the smugness in the AI's voice. “Besides, wasn't that kinda fun?”

Odin absolutely did _not_ want to give him the satisfaction of being right, regardless of whether or not he may have been even slightly so. “So that was just for fun, then?”

“Oh, no, heroes need to be able to think under pressure! I don't know if you've ever seen any superhero movies, but they're always getting into situations where they need to think while things are going wrong. And now that you've had to rescue yourself from falling off a building once, you'll be a little more familiar next time!”

That was… a surprisingly well-reasoned point. Still not flawless, but… how long had Donald been thinking about superheroes? Did he really come up with the idea _just tonight_?

Somehow the thought made him feel even worse for Donald.

“Alright, I've jumped off your building and had enough of an adrenaline rush to last a lifetime. Are we done for tonight?”

He didn't consciously notice, at the time, that he'd said “for tonight” despite previously claiming this was _only_ going to be tonight. But Donald did.

So he'd end up going out several more nights that week. Something about running around in an obnoxiously green costume “learning how to be a superhero”- Donald's lessons seemed serious enough, but when were _superhero skills_ ever going to be necessary?- was a nice break from the dull work of running his father's company. Maybe it was partially because it was the kind of thing that Everett absolutely wouldn't condone. It was too reckless and unproductive. 

But maybe that was okay. Donald seemed to think it was, and that was enough for him, for whatever reason.

\---------------  
He really had intended to ignore the strange, bright purple ducks that appeared one night. People did weird stuff all the time, and he didn't want to risk being seen in this ridiculous suit- appearing all over the _news_ in it- just because a few people stood out.

But Donald had other ideas, and something about his excitement made it dangerously contagious.

"There they are again! I'm tellin' ya, Odin, they're giving me a really bad feeling. You should figure out what they're up to."

"We're really going to act on a _feeling_ even when it's likely to get us arrested for stalking?" He replied, already heading over there anyway. While he didn't really get Donald's trust in "gut instinct", the more the AI brought the purple ducks up the harder it was to ignore his own curiosity.

He stopped across the street from the alley the purple ducks had gathered in. Abrupt stops while running on rooftops used to end with him toppling over the edge, but Donald's "training" had admittedly made him better balanced, and at least at the moment, that was proving to be helpful.

"Hey, look," Donald said, remotely zooming Odin's goggles in. "They've cornered some people! And it looks like they've got some kind of weapon pointed at them!"

"I don't know, those guns look like cheesy sci-fi props. I'm not sure-" The two hostages caught his attention, and his stomach flipped as he recognized them. "Those "people" are two of the head writers for _Anxieties_! You're right, I have to do something!"

He jumped over the street and landed roughly- but quietly, thanks to the enhanced agility and sound suppression of the suit- on top of the building to the left of the alley.

"_Anxieties_?"

"It's the only thing on TV besides the news that I make time to watch these days, and possibly the only entertaining media currently in production."

Donald laughed, which was not helpful when he was trying to figure out what the purple ducks- with their ridiculous proportions, they _had_ to be in some kind of costumes- were trying to do to the writers. 

"I _know_ what it is, I just never woulda' guessed you were a sitcom guy."

Odin scowled, even though he knew Donald couldn't see him. "Let's talk about this later, right now we need to _do_ something."

As he spoke, one of the purple ducks pulled the trigger on his blaster. Odin acted without thinking, throwing his shield- to the best of his ability- at their hand. It made contact just as the blaster began to fire, the concerningly real-looking laser blast only missing the writers' heads by a few centimeters.

"Hey, nice shot, hero!"

Odin barely heard the AI, all too aware that now he had the attention of both purple ducks. Between the real lasers and how completely alien the material of their skin tight suits looked up close, he suspected he'd just gotten himself into a lot more than a fight with some cosplayers. But what on Earth could they be?

For once in his life, he barely had time to think, as they'd begun to fire at him. He flattened himself on the roof, and pulled the blaster-like multitool Donald made him off out of its holster, frantically switching the setting.

The shots from the alleyway paused- they couldn't have thought he left, so perhaps they wanted to conserve ammo- and he popped back up, shooting the writers with the "tractor beam" setting. Luckily, he was a decent enough shot that the beam hit its targets, pulling them up to the roof where he was. 

He didn't wait to see how the purple duo would react, because he didn't need "superhero training" to know engaging in a fight with two unknown enemies and two bystanders was a terrible idea. Instead, he bolted, his tractor beam carrying the baffled writers weightlessly along with him.

But he didn't make it far before he heard the whirring of something behind him, and a split-second glance told him the two monsters were following on some kind of gliders. He was beginning to suspect- though he still had no idea _what_ they were- that they worked for one of Duckburg's infamous supervillains, but their modus operandi didn't even slightly resemble that of any he'd heard about on the news. Another thing to file away for later.

With his free hand, he pressed the button on his glove that would recall his shield to his hand, and he timed it as he jumped between rooftops so the shield would hit the head of one of the attackers. The force, in fact, ended up being enough to knock them off their glider, leaving him with only one pursuer left.

Donald was, thankfully, remaining quiet, letting him focus on the frankly ridiculous situation he'd gotten himself into. He couldn't believe he was actually _rescuing_ people.

_Or attempting to, anyway,_ he thought, narrowly dodging another laser blast. He didn't feel any heat coming off of it, so it likely was something more than just a laser, but Odin couldn't say he was too interested in finding out what effect it was meant to have at the moment.

He knew he couldn't reliably throw his shield while he was running, but most of his other gadgets were in his singular multitool that was already holding the writers. He was better off trying to get out of sight and then hide.

During his next jump, Odin activated his boots, keeping a careful grip on his multitool as he rocketed towards Ducklair Tower. As he approached the building, he made a sharp turn and hid behind the building, then shut off the boots and dropped down.

"Donald, can you open the top of the garage?"

"Sure thing! You're doing great out there!"

Knowing he'd been operating solely on adrenaline for this entire encounter and it was sure to run out any moment, he didn't respond, trying not to break his focus. As he plummeted, he waited until he was nearly in the garage before firing up his rockets again, just long enough to catch his momentum before he hit the ground.

The second he landed, he lowered the writers to the ground and shut off the beam. As Donald closed the roof again, he only got a brief glimpse of the purple duck gliding far overhead.

He'd lost them, at least for the moment.

His adrenaline was about up, and he felt like collapsing on the floor. But he still had the two writers to deal with. They were staring at him with wide, disbelieving eyes, and Odin was suddenly extremely conscious of his super suit.

And then they both fainted, Donald barely managing to slip some pillows under them so they didn't hit the solid concrete.

"I… I suppose I should get them- well, I don't know where they live. Maybe I should leave them at the _Anxieties_ studio?"

A miniature version of Donald's orb popped up next to him, and the AI nodded. "You're already in the garage, you can take one of Everett's cars."

"If I stay dressed like this, I run the risk of those purple ducks finding me again. But if I change, they're probably going to realize it was me that saved them!"

"Just go fast, then! The studio isn't even that far from here."

\---------------  
"We're lucky there isn't any traffic at this time of night," Odin sighed, collapsing into his father's chair back on the 151st floor. "During the daytime it can take nearly three times as long to get through that part of Duckburg." 

"That was a great first night as a hero, though! If the press gets wind of any of this you're going to be front page news for sure. Ah, phooey, you didn't introduce yourself, did you? They're going to have no idea what to call you!"

He groaned. "I think you're getting a bit ahead of yourself. They didn't even take any pictures of me, and at that time of night there certainly weren't any other witnesses. If they even try to spread the story, the most that's going to happen is a few blurry photos on conspiracy sites."

"Don't be so pessimistic!"

"That was my attempt at _optimism_, Donald."

"Yeah, right. Look, even if that is all that happens, it's something! And now we've got those weird guys to look into. You could even get a _nemesis_ or somethin'! That'll get you on the news for sure."

"I'm not sure I want to be on the news. Certainly right now all I want to do is sleep."

Donald gave him a soft smile. "All right, all right, I'm sure that was kind of a lot for you anyway. Your first confrontation! Your first _win_! You more than earned a good night's sleep. And hey, I'll even make you breakfast in the morning."

"You make breakfast every morning."

"But this time it'll be a victory breakfast!"

Odin yawned, and took the elevator down to the floor with his room. As he got into bed, though, one last thing was still nagging him.

"Uh, Donald?"

Even outside of his floor, the AI still replied immediately. "Yeah?"

"Can you make a copy of my multitool? I know you were excited about the shield, but I think a second blaster suits me much better."

Already half asleep, he missed the way Donald's electronic eyes lit up.

**Author's Note:**

> Here We Go Again, am I right? this has been sitting half-finished in my google drive for months, hah
> 
> so I'm thinking Odin's signature weapons will be two blaster-style multitools? I considered giving him a multi-functional shield like canon PK's, but that just felt too Iconic to PK so idk. and then I remembered canon odin has those two blasters in the first issue of PKNE? and that's where the concept came from
> 
> also rereading this, I'm realizing donald probably comes off as significantly more enthusiastic in this au than he is in canon? but that's bc he doesn't have to deal with scrooge, being a single parent, AND being PK on a daily basis so he's a lot less Perpetually Exhausted tbh


End file.
